by L. EE
“No, I’m glad we came here.” Arthur took her by the shoulders and pushed her back just a little. He was smiling, but it was the saddest smile Nia had ever seen. “I know it’s just for a little while, but it’s okay. It’s not your fault; it’s just… what it is. He understands too. We’ve discussed it.”
“How do you discuss something like that?” Nia asked in a small voice.
Arthur laughed flatly. “I’d be lying if I said it was fun, but it had to be done. He pretty much knew the score before I even said anything. I think Gail dropped a hint or two. I just had to give him the details. Now, stop crying, Ni.”
“‘Knew the score,’” Nia echoed, shaking her head. “You’ve been spending too much time with our dear detective. And I am not crying.” She wiped her face on her arm before lifting her eyes to Arthur’s. “Maybe I can –”
“No, there’s nothing you can do. You know how the Directors would react. They would strip you of your rank for even suggesting it.”
He was right, of course, and it wasn’t as if Nia could simply leave him behind, claim that she lost him or that he had run away. Not only would it break her heart, but bound ward like Arthur, with no way of hiding his magic, would be easy for the Academy to find. And once they tracked him down, Mr. Rivers would be accused of harboring a dangerous fugitive, which could mean years behind bars.
Once again, Arthur seemed to know just what she was thinking, because he squeezed her shoulders and said, “There’s nothing you can do, Ni, so stop worrying.”
I’m your sister, she thought. There should be something I can do. But knowing that would make both of them feel worse, she fell back on their tried-and-true method for curing sadness when they were children, “Do you want to read with me?’
Arthur smiled. “Sure.”
As they settled down together with their chosen book – a novel that Xavier had recommended to Arthur – across their knees, Nia asked Arthur if his binding felt all right and he nodded. “Sometimes it aches in the mornings, but I don’t think it’s any weaker.”
Nia fiddled with a page. “Maybe when we get back to the Academy, I can find a way to stop it from hurting – without redoing it, of course.”
“I’d appreciate that. Thanks, Ni.”
They read silently for a while, shoulder to shoulder, until Nia’s eyes, which were worn out from a day of squinting at spells, could no longer follow the small print. Then Arthur read aloud until Nia lost the thread of the story and fell asleep against his shoulder. Someone must have found them later, because when she woke up early the next morning, there was a blanket spread over them and the book had been placed back on the table.
When she shifted, Arthur lifted his head off of hers, wincing as he rubbed his neck. “You make a bad pillow.”
“You serve,” Nia replied, smiling.
“Hah.” Arthur moved to stand, but froze halfway, one hand grabbing at his chest.
“Are you all right?” Nia asked with sudden panic, leaping up from the couch.
Arthur stayed rigid with pain for another moment, then relaxed and straightened with no trouble. “I told you, it hurts in the mornings, but it passes.” He shrugged. “Maybe it will fix itself, given time.”
There was so much hope in his voice that Nia didn’t have the heart to say she doubted it. Weakened bindings were a rare thing and not because most bound wards never had their bindings compromised. Weakened bindings were rare because they usually became broken bindings.
But that wouldn’t be the case for Arthur. He wouldn’t be exposed to any further magic until they returned to the safety of the Academy. Nia would make sure of that. She would protect him.
Yes, because you’ve done a wonderful job of that so far. She tried to shove that doubting voice away, but it continued whispering hatefully in the back of her mind.
Overhead, she could hear Xavier and Gail stirring, heralding the start of another frustrating and likely fruitless day. In the gray light of morning with her worry for Arthur and her frustration at her failure hanging heavily on her, she was tempted to give up. How easy it would be to simply write the Academy a one sentence message informing them that she was surrendering the assignment to whoever was willing to take it on.
But how could she quit? How could she give up after coming so far? In that case, it would have been better to have never taken the case at all.
Reading her thoughts, Arthur reached out and made a mess of her already tangled hair. “You’re going to burn yourself out, Ni. You need more rest.”
More noise from upstairs. Water began to bang through the old pipes.
Obeying a sudden impulse, Nia hugged her brother tightly one more time, not caring if he laughed at her. But he didn’t. Instead he just returned the embrace, his cheek pressed against the top of her head. “Everything will be all right, Ni.”
It wouldn’t be, not really, but she couldn’t say so. Pulling back, she tried in vain to brush her hair into some semblance of neatness. “What are your plans for today?”
“I’m not sure,” said Arthur, allowing her to move on to less painful topics. “One of the neighborhood generators has gone down again, so I might look at that, and Xavier asked if I could check on the Curon girl. Do you remember her? I set her arm a few days ago after she broke it trying to climb a fence. I want to make sure its healing properly.”
“Poor thing…” Nia murmured. She had never broken any bones and just the thought made her rub her own arm protectively.
“She should be just fine. Kids mend better than adults and she’s tough. She hardly cried when I set the bone. I bet she’ll be back on that fence again as soon as she’s able. Either way, it’ll probably be a busy day.” He was smiling when he said it though, smiling as warm and bright as a bar of sunlight on a cloudy day.
The guilt and sadness roared over Nia again, almost choking her with its ferocity, but she forced it away from her face, back down into her heart. Showing her sadness would only remind Arthur of his own. “Well, it sounds like you have plenty to do. I should get back to work as well.”
“Ni?” Arthur said as she turned away.
“Hm?”
“Be careful.”
Nia looked at him in confusion, but he had already stooped to collect the abandoned book and blanket. When he straightened up, the blanket draped over one arm, he was smiling again.
Nia put on her own brightest smile in response. “Honestly, Arthur, what on earth do I have to be careful of? Now, why don’t we get the coffee started before Mr. Rivers and Gail come down?”
56
Gail Lin
The eleventh day at Xavier’s house was shaping up to be one of the better ones Gail had had in a long time. Sure, they still hadn’t made progress on the case, but as she finished her breakfast, a freakish gleam of rainy season sun escaped through the clouds, turning the usually gray world a warm gold, and everyone’s moods seemed to lift along with the clouds. Even Nia seemed to temporarily shrug off the stress of her responsibilities and after Arthur and Xavier left to see to a busted generator and a girl with an equally busted arm, Nia took hold of Gail’s hand and asked if she wanted to take a walk in the nice weather. Standing in the sunlight pouring through the window, Nia was practically glowing herself.
It would have been hard to say no to her even if it had been pouring, so Gail finished off her coffee and followed Nia outside. It was still cool, a brisk breeze making it clear that the storms wouldn’t hold off for long, but the sun was putting on a good show, burning off the mist and catching in Nia’s dark hair like flashes of fire.
They walked hand-in-hand down to the bridge closest to Xavier’s house, not talking about anything in particular. When they stopped at the low bridge that curved over the river, Gail leaned her arms on the stone railing. The canal here was dug deeper than in other parts of Gracetown, which kept the flooding to a minimum. The residents of Wet Blessing would move here if they could, but the police were harder on squatters here and their hovels would be pulled do
wn almost as soon as they went up.
Nia must have noticed the disquiet on her face, because she pulled her away from the bridge and down one of the narrow side streets. This route was certainly more secluded than the canal, which even this early in the morning was bustling with people heading out for work or walking to the nearest well or just gathering some bad water to use as poor man’s rat poison. This street on the other hand was nearly dead silent, most of the houses abandoned and rotting.
As they walked farther down the empty street, Nia moved closer to Gail’s side until they were walking arm-in-arm.
“Something bothering you, princess?”
Nia shook her head, but her face darkened as she gazed at the vacant houses, their boarded up windows staring at the street like blinded eyes. “I can’t believe you used to live in a place like this. Was it – I remember what you said about your father – but was it always terrible?”
It looks worse than it is, Gail almost said, but that wasn’t true. In fact, the opposite was truer, but what would be the point of telling Nia that? She finally settled on saying nothing at all.
But Nia seemed to get the point anyway. She looked down at her feet. “I’m sorry, I shouldn’t have brought it up.”
“It’s not that. It’s just not worth dwelling on. It happened a long time ago.”
Nia was silent for a moment, then she said, “I dwell on the past all the time.”
“Your mom?” Gail remembered the story Nia had told her, the one about the magician whose mistake had cost herself and several of her students their lives. “That’s different. That was a real tragedy. What happened to me…” She shrugged. “It happens every day around here.”
“But it shouldn’t.” Leaning her head on Gail’s shoulder, Nia gazed around the street again. “Where did you go after, if you don’t mind me asking?”
“After I got flooded out? I went to the children’s home up on Arrow Hill. It wasn’t so bad. I mean, it wasn’t so great either, but lots of kids had it worse.”
Nia only sighed in response.
Gail had a feeling Nia couldn’t help looking at her past like a problem she could fix, as if there was some combination of words that would take the sting of Wet Blessing and Arrow Hill out of Gail’s memories forever, but it didn’t work that way. Nia couldn’t wipe away Gail’s past any more than Gail could give Nia her mother back.
But she had spent enough time with Nia to know that, if she were allowed to, she would roll the unsolvable problem around in her mind until it had eroded away all her glow, so Gail took her by the hand again and said, “Want to see the best thing about living in a neighborhood like this?”
Ignoring Nia’s bewildered questions, Gail tugged her out of the street and in between two of the abandoned houses. The roofs of the houses overlapped so completely that the little alley was entirely shrouded in dark blue shadow.
“See?” said Gail, putting her hands on Nia’s hips. “Instant privacy.”
The surprise faded on Nia’s face faded into a slight smirk. “I don’t know if you are aware, detective, but human beings have long been acquainted with the art of building houses, which in turn contain rooms, which are specifically designed to provide privacy.”
“Yeah, but where’s the fun in that?”
Nia laughed as Gail bent down to kiss her neck. “It also sounds like an effective way to join Mr. Rivers in bed with his cold.”
“Well, three’s kind of a crowd, but if you insist…”
“You know very well that wasn’t what I meant.”
“Yeah.” Gail pressed a final lingering kiss to the hollow beneath Nia’s ear and pulled back. “All right, if you’d rather not, we can keep –” She was cut off by Nia pressing a finger across her lips.
“Detective, do you ever stop talking?”
Gail sputtered, turning her head away. “You’re one to talk, princess! Have you ever –” She was very effectively cut off by Nia folding in close and pressing their lips together.
About half an hour later, they emerged from the alley, looking slightly worse for the wear – Gail had lost her hair tie somewhere and Nia had contrived to pull a seam loose on her dress, so she had to hold it with one hand to keep it from falling off of her shoulder – but in much better spirits.
When they stopped to watch a few of Xavier’s students playing a game of stickball in the yard, Nia leaned up and kissed Gail’s cheek.
Gail looked over at her with a confused smile. “What was that for?”
Nia only shrugged, dipping her head again.
The kids’ red ball rolled their way and Gail tossed it back.
“Why don’t we keep going?” Nia said, slipping her arm through Gail’s. “It seems a shame to waste the sun.”
“Sure. Whatever you want, princess.”
They walked a bit longer, making a wide loop before doubling back to the house. At one point, Nia stopped suddenly, pulling Gail to a stop.
“What is it?” Gail asked automatically, hoping Nia wasn’t drifting back to melancholy thoughts. Gracetown was depressing enough.
“Did you know about Arthur and Mr. Rivers?”
Shit. Well, she knew this was going to come up sooner or later. “Yeah.”
“And you didn’t tell me.”
“Yeah.”
“Why?” The question didn’t come out accusatory, just honestly curious, but Gail knew Nia would be within her rights to be pissed, so she wasn’t going to let her guard down. “I figured it was between you and Arthur and it wasn’t my business to get involved one way or another. It was Arthur’s place to talk to you about it.”
Nia remained silent for another moment, eyes still on the ground, hand still on Gail’s arm. Then she said, “Fair enough.”
Gail blinked. “Fair enough?”
“Fair enough.”
It was hard to imagine it would be that easy. Gail didn’t regret what she’d done, but she couldn’t deny that it was a gray business. “Anyway, I guess we both figured that if you didn’t know, you couldn’t get in trouble for it.”
Nia raised her eyes at last. “Surely you understand the Academy better than that by now, detective.” The word ‘Academy’ had lost a little of the gleam her voice usually saturated it with.
“Why not tell them to go fuck themselves then?” Gail asked without thinking. “I mean, not directly but…”
Nia only shook her head. “They do good work. Not always in the manner I wish they would, but they do good work. Without them…” She shook her head. “Without them, this city would fall apart. No waterproofing, no farming, no protection from unscrupulous magicians who would take advantage of laymen. No… no, nothing.”
Nothing but water. Not knowing what to say, Gail just squeezed Nia’s hand gently and was relieved when Nia returned the clasp.
Their good mood slowly returned as they made their way back to Xavier’s house. Gail told Nia a story about how she, when helping build that steep swooping roof, had slid down and got herself stuck in one of the troughs, which was thankfully empty at the time. She had managed to get herself tangled in her coat, which in turn had caught on the edge of the trough, and had looked nothing at all like the brave and dashing detective that Xavier told his buddies about.
It wasn’t her finest moment, but it made Nia laugh and lean against Gail’s shoulder, so she figured that was all right. She snuck a glance at the sky as they walked, watching as the blue was slowly obscured by spreading fingers of dark gray clouds. In the distance, she could see a flicker of lightning in the darkness. She pulled up her collar up against the wind and urged Nia to walk a little faster.
57
Nia Graves
By afternoon, the sky was a brooding black. While Mr. Rivers ducked out to check on his nearest neighbors to make sure they had enough candles and clean water to make it through the storm, Nia snatched the opportunity. Her walk with Gail had shaken some of the cobwebs from her mind and she had hit upon a possible solution to their current predicament – t
he Connery predicament at least. As Xavier left the house, Nia gently touched his arm and asked if perhaps he would prefer to stay with a neighbor tonight.
He had looked at her silently for a moment, then nodded. “I’ll call if I need to come home.”
“Thank you.” Nia watched him go then asked both Arthur and Gail to join her in the guestroom to propose her newest – and last – idea.
“As you’ve probably both realized, I am having no luck locating the final piece of Connery.”
Arthur’s nod came a bit late, as though he had forgotten all about Connery.
“I don’t know if my spells aren’t precise enough or if the magical interference from Connery’s dead underling is too great, but it doesn’t matter. The point is that while I know Connery must be nearby, I cannot find him. Therefore, I’m proposing an alternate solution.” Kneeling on the guestroom floor, Nia opened her small silver case and took out a piece of chalk. “Do you remember the hotel?”
“It’d be pretty hard to forget,” said Gail.
“Well, though it was hardly the most elegant solution, I was able to expose Connery then by triggering his traps. It’s not without risk, of course, but when the traps are triggered, the magic released will make it impossible for Connery to hide.” There was a nervous flutter in Nia’s stomach, but she banished it and began drawing directly on Mr. Rivers’ floor.
“So you want to do the same thing here?” Arthur watched the growing circle with trepidation. “It didn’t go well before.”
“Yes, but now that I know the kind of magic Connery employs in his traps, we can be prepared.” She looked up at Arthur. “To be safe, I asked Mr. Rivers to stay out of the house tonight. He said he would call if his plans changed.” Leaving the spell on the floor half-finished for the moment, Nia waved Gail and Arthur closer. “I am going to put powerful protective spells on all of us. This will make it impossible for us to be trapped the way we were in the hotel.”
Arthur eyed the chalk uneasily. “Are you sure this is the only way, Ni?”